Falls and fall-related injuries are the most common cause of injuries and hospital admissions for trauma among the elderly. Among the causes of falls, fainting (syncope) is one important factor in older people and also related often to unexplained and recurrent falls. In these circumstances, a wearable system competent in faint fall onset detection will offer great advantages to elderly health care in terms of reducing elderly health care expenditure, and helping elderly with fall experiences rehabilitate, regain confidence and independence in free living conditions.
In Ge Wu, “Distinguishing fall activities from normal activities by velocity characteristics”, Journal of Biomechanics 2000; 33(11) 1497-1500, detection of falls before the subjects touches the floor using cameras is described. Other fall incidents detection systems using camera or motion sensors are proposed in e.g. US2006145874, GB20052409321, US2003058341, US2001004234, FR20012808609, US2006214806, WO2006080225, US20067095331, US20036611783, WO198800007350. US20060001545A1 and US2006049950 propose detection of fall before touching the floor using accelerometers. A threshold level for vertical acceleration, 8 m/square sec, is set which is alleged to distinguish fall from normal activity. However, in order to detect a vertical acceleration of 8 m/square sec, practically the person would have to undergo a more than 45° rotation from the vertical axis. Therefore, in this scenario the fall has already significantly progressed before detection is possible.
A need therefore exist to provide a system and method for fall on set detection that seeks to address one or more of the above disadvantages.